Too skinny, lack of experience
No, not Barack Obama. Abraham Lincoln.At 6'4", Lincoln weighed 160 to 180 pounds when he was elected president. He lost weight while in office.
Lincoln's political background consisted of four terms in the Illinois state legislature, one term in the U.S. House, and a failed run for the Senate. He had not served in office for 12 years when he was elected president.
Oh, and he was a lawyer.
Photo from the Wikimedia Commons.
Labels: Lincoln, Obama, presidential candidates experience
posted by Weedgardener @ 7:59 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Did I ever mention that I went back, using Wikipedia, and looked at all the presidents' prior records of experience? I was really startled to find that there seems to be little or no correlation between the amount of experience they had and how well they did as president. I think people assume Kennedy was inexperienced because he was young, but with 6 years in the House and 8 in the Senate, he was actually above average. FDR had much less; a stint as an Assistant Secretary for the Navy, a little bit of state senate time, and three years as governor of New York were the sum total, if I recall correctly. Not too different from Obama, and I'm surprised more people don't make that comparison rather than the others that are made. At 53 when he was elected, he isn't much older than Obama's 47 would be, and they even both went to Columbia and Harvard.
Now that FDR is being vilified by the right, a comparison to him could be a mixed blessing.
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